| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Is this "offensive language"? [not for the very easily offended] Thread poster: Christopher Schröder
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| Where is the like button???? | Jan 4, 2018 |
for Mervyn's posts
[Edited at 2018-01-04 18:34 GMT]
| | | | | Enter Mrs Slocombe’s pussy | Jan 4, 2018 |
Emough already.
I do try to treat this as a professional forum but it’s getting harder all the time.
Where are the mods when you need them?
| | | | Mervyn Henderson (X) 
Spain
Local time: 13:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
... better not to get into “buttons”.
Hope this stops soon. I’m running out of juice.
| | | | | Correct spelling of character from The Man with the Golden Gun? | Jan 4, 2018 |
Was it Choo Mee or Chu Mi swimming in the pool without a bathing suit? Pussy Galore is easy, but I was always more curious about Choo/Chu.
And does the unmentionable c. l. word really count as inuendo? It's hardly ambiguous or oblique.
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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Spain
Local time: 13:43
Spanish to English
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| Careful, Michael ... | Jan 4, 2018 |
... exercise extreme caution here. What with all the PC post-Weinstein fallout these days, it's got to be not so much "Chu Mee" as "Mee Chu".
"Ambiguous" ... I couldn't possibly comment, but "oblique" obviously depends on the angle of attack, if you will.
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 13:43
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Chris S wrote:
I've just had a post deleted by ProZ for "offensive language", viz "a cunning linguist".
This is not offensive language by any measure.
There is an innuendo, sure...
Well, there are degrees of innuendo, and there is a point at which innuendo isn't mere innuendo anymore. In my opinion, the "cunning linguist" line is fairly blatant as far as sexual humour is concerned. It's a cute pun, certainly, but an overtly sexual one nonetheless.
| | | | LEXpert
United States
Local time: 06:43
Member (2008)
Croatian to English
+ ...
| Literally a PG-13 rated joke | Jan 4, 2018 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
I first heard it said in a James Bond film by Miss Moneypenny: "You always were a cunning linguist, James".
It's from Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) - In the US, rated parental guidance suggested for children under 13. Perhaps ProZ has applied the same threshold for offensiveness...
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 12:43
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| There you go again, you naughty Mervyn :) | Jan 4, 2018 |
Mervyn Henderson wrote:
Her office was in the basement at MI5, and her job was to get James ready to go into action. So before a mission Bond arrived at HQ, and the first thing he did was go down there. Moneypenny would always debrief him afterwards too.
And then? Did she put them in her drawers?
Why does the CL saying have to have originated on TV or in a film? It's my husband's pet tease when he wants to (very mildly) embarrass me in front of people. I don't think he copied it from anyone or anywhere. He's a songwriter so he's capable of thinking these things up for himself.
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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Spain
Local time: 13:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
... the phaser gun had zapped Chris's post before I saw it, so I was really writing blind. Still, I got the point, and the joke rings a bell somewhere, but I just can't put my finger on it now. I know what you're thinking, but all the foregoing is no double entendre. Perhaps Chris could apprise me in private - alternatively, repost as a kind of gap test with key words left out, you know, the ones we used to do in French class:
Claude est _____ le salon. M. Dupont ______ sa voiture. ... See more ... the phaser gun had zapped Chris's post before I saw it, so I was really writing blind. Still, I got the point, and the joke rings a bell somewhere, but I just can't put my finger on it now. I know what you're thinking, but all the foregoing is no double entendre. Perhaps Chris could apprise me in private - alternatively, repost as a kind of gap test with key words left out, you know, the ones we used to do in French class:
Claude est _____ le salon. M. Dupont ______ sa voiture. Mme. Dupont _____ la vaisselle. (yes, I know, not PC, but that's the way it was then) ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 13:43
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
At first I thought: Would someone start a thread about this, is this for real?
Then I laughed at Mervyn's comments and the topic made sense. Thanks for a good laugh.
| | | | | Sorry to disappoint | Jan 5, 2018 |
Mervyn Henderson wrote:
Perhaps Chris could repost as a kind of _____
I'm afraid it's not very exciting, it's not at all sexy and it's really not that clever, but at the time it tickled my fancy:
Poll: How many languages do you speak?
Flippant answer: 69. For I am a cunning linguist.
This might belong in a Carry On film, but it's certainly not "offensive language".
Offensive language would be _____ off you _____ !
PS Whatever some might say, this is a million miles away from being a professional forum. It's not like we ever discuss any big issues. We come here for light relief or a bit of a moan. As for the notion that outsiders might come here and read what we say, I mean, really?
| | | | Mervyn Henderson (X)
Spain
Local time: 13:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
... we're linguists, right? We're in the word business. We juggle words around. We deal in words. In our spare time we joke and mess around with them because we can.
I see it as a distraction from the trashy Horlicks we have to translate all day long from people who get paid much more to write the nonsense they write, and get more time to do it too. Of course, they NEED more time to put in all those gaudy boxes and tick marks and bullets and plasticine people all over the PowerPoin... See more ... we're linguists, right? We're in the word business. We juggle words around. We deal in words. In our spare time we joke and mess around with them because we can.
I see it as a distraction from the trashy Horlicks we have to translate all day long from people who get paid much more to write the nonsense they write, and get more time to do it too. Of course, they NEED more time to put in all those gaudy boxes and tick marks and bullets and plasticine people all over the PowerPoint slides. Not to mention thinking up all those new acronyms and buzzwords known to maybe four or five people on the entire planet, and sprinkling them all over the shop to make absolutely sure that nobody understands what they're on about.
Can you tell I'm on one of those at the moment ...? ▲ Collapse
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| Origin of this pun | Jan 5, 2018 |
It's much older than the James Bond film. According to this page it goes back at least to 1968:
"It turns out a Google N-gram search turns up precisely zero hits for the phrase before 1968 or so, when all of a sudden it turns up three times: in satirical Socialist poetry published in Partisan Review, in a book about graffiti 'The Scrawl of the Wild' (yes, that is its real name), and (surprise surprise!) in pornography!"
The last comment refers to an "adult novel"... See more It's much older than the James Bond film. According to this page it goes back at least to 1968:
"It turns out a Google N-gram search turns up precisely zero hits for the phrase before 1968 or so, when all of a sudden it turns up three times: in satirical Socialist poetry published in Partisan Review, in a book about graffiti 'The Scrawl of the Wild' (yes, that is its real name), and (surprise surprise!) in pornography!"
The last comment refers to an "adult novel" entitled The Cunning Linguist, by Troy Conway, which the poster believes is the fons et origo of the phrase. He reproduces the cover of this book and a further four with the same title, one of them by Richard Lederer ("Ribald Riddles, Lascivious Limericks, Carnal Corn, and Other Good, Clean Dirty Fun!" It sounds absolutely dire).
https://www.quora.com/Where-does-the-phrase-cunning-linguist-come-from
It's actually in wiktionary ("plural cunning linguists"):
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cunning_linguist
I find it hilarious, really, that someone moderated this. It's completely childish, to my mind. For translators, professional linguists, to be offended by sexual language seems to me as ridiculous as doctors being offended by nudity.
[Edited at 2018-01-05 11:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Sheila Wilson
Spain
Local time: 12:43
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| So what if potential clients see stuff like this? | Jan 5, 2018 |
Chris S wrote:
As for the notion that outsiders might come here and read what we say, I mean, really?
I know that quite a few of my former and current clients keep an eye on these forums, so I'd want to be careful about saying things that might put them (and others) off working with me. I have seen rants here that might well cause outsourcers to blacklist the translator involved.
But who on earth minds about this sort of stuff? Making a joke - even if it is at the rather smutty "Carry On" level of double entendre - just shows that the posters here are actually human! Surely, wordplay is to be expected and even encouraged from people who work with words, isn't it  ?
I thought we'd got over the time when genteel ladies were supposed to be overcome with the vapours at the drop of a hat (let alone trousers), and gentlemen of breeding were far too polite to speak of such things before the ladies retired to the drawing room. But maybe not  .
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 13:43
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Charles Davis wrote:
For translators, professional linguists, to be offended by sexual language seems to me as ridiculous as doctors being offended by nudity.
I'm sure no doctor will be offended by nudity if the nudity presents itself in his examination room upon request. However, I would find it entirely plausible for that same doctor to be offended by nudity in a different context where he did not expect to find it.
The fact that offensive language exists, and that it can be encountered by translators in partricular translation-related contexts, does not mean that translators would necessarily remain unoffended by such language in all other contexts as well.
There is a time and place for sexual humour, and the moderator simply felt that these forums isn't such a place.
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